We recently decided to test out Amazon’s TV price matching policy. The results were a little disappointing. We started by placing an order for the Panasonic TC-P50ST50 at Amazon for $1099. US Appliance was selling it for $997 and Paul’s TV for $999. We though it would be pretty easy to get back about $100.
According to Amazon’s TV Low Price Guarantee page, after the item shipped, we’d be able to submit the price match request by clicking a button on our order summary page. Of course, that button is nowhere to be found. We waited a day or so hoping for it to appear, but it did not. We then contacted customer support through their online chat. The price matching department isn’t available 24/7, so they made a request to the appropriate department for us, and gave us a telephone number for following up if needed.
The next day, we received an email from Amazon saying our price match request had been declined. The reason given was that Paul’s TV did not offer white glove delivery. The US Appliance price is hard to find as the discount only appears after entering a credit card number, so it was not too surprising that they declined to match that price. Paul’s TV actually does offer free white glove delivery on this product, so we decided to give Amazon a call.
We first mentioned the US Appliance price and explained how to see the final price. The customer service agent followed the directions and verified the price. However, US Appliance didn’t include white glove delivery, so that price couldn’t be matched. We then sent the customer service agent to Paul’s TV. The product page says free white glove delivery on it, but when you go to the cart, there is an extra charge. I’m pretty sure Paul’s TV just gives you the white glove delivery automatically when you select standard shipping, but from Amazon’s perspective there is no way to verify that. We expected to run into problems getting this price match. We lucked out a little bit, because the Paul’s TV website went down while the customer service agent was verifying the price. The agent decided he believed our price report and gave us our refund. It’s hard to guess what would have happened if the site hadn’t gone down.
Given our experience, we advise Bountii users to not give much weight to the Amazon price match policy when deciding whether or not to buy from them. The process is not very smooth and you likely have not read the terms of the guarantee carefully enough. For your own peace of mind, you should expect for your price match to not be honored and be happy if/when it is.
